Donald Trump plans to screw over the most vulnerable children and families in the nation by eliminating funding for Head Start programs, according to reporting from the Associated Press. This move would gut early education for more than half a million of the nation’s neediest children.
Since taking office in January, Trump has slow-walked distributing Head Start funding appropriated by Congress. Head Start programs across the country have received nearly $1 billion less in federal funds compared with funding levels at the same time last year.
It’s another example of Trump breaking campaign promises and betraying the working-class families he courted on the campaign trail. As a candidate, Trump promised to expand the child tax credit and make child care affordable through tariff revenue. Instead, his tariff tax will make it more costly to raise a child and cost households an additional $4,400 this year.
“Donald Trump is following the Project 2025 playbook and ripping away warm meals, early learning, and even vision screenings from kids who need them the most – all while taxing their parents on everyday goods, making it even harder to provide for their families,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Brandon Weathersby. “Trump’s budget proposal says ‘fuck them kids’ to every parent in the nation looking for help just to get by and give their children every opportunity to succeed. Kids will go hungry and parents will lose their jobs if Trump gets his way, and it will be because he decided children don’t matter as much as tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.”
Families relying on Head Start and advocates for early education in states across the nation say starving the program of resources or eliminating the program entirely could be devastating for their communities:
- In Colorado, 11,000 of the state’s most vulnerable children could lose vital early learning opportunities.
- In Wisconsin, Head Start programs serving 16,000 children statewide have received $36 million less in federal funds than last year. According to local advocates, programs in the state are experiencing payment delays that could lead to closures soon, and eliminating the program would be “devastating.”
- In the New England region, residents experienced a Head Start closure last month and fear future closures will rip away resources from children and force parents to leave the workforce.
- In Eastern Washington, federal cuts forced the closure of Head Start and Early Head Start programs, impacting more than 400 preschool children and eliminating 70 jobs.
- In South Dakota, advocates say losing federal funding would be “detrimental” to the 4,000 children and their families who rely on Head Start.
- In San Diego, analysis shows that eliminating Head Start would worsen the child care crisis in the county. The average monthly cost for a San Diego County child care center is $1,650 for infants and $1,200 for preschoolers.
- In Illinois, the Head Start program serves over 28,000 children and has employed almost 9,000 people across the state. Local advocates say the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle Head Start “has nothing to do with best practice, nothing to do with children outcomes, and nothing to do with best interests of children.”
Published: Apr 18, 2025 | Last Modified: Apr 21, 2025